Mrs. Brown -- 1996

A few facts:

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) took the throne - 1837
     married Albert (1819 - 1861) - 1840
     had 9 children- four sons and five daughters: Victoria, (King) Edward Albert,
         Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold, and Beatrice

John Brown (1826 - 1883)

The Englishwoman Who Is Fit to Play A Formidable Queen

By ALAN RIDING (New York Times Article)
July 13,1997

''I DON'T LIKE MAKING films, Judi Dench announced disarmingly, explaining in one simple phrase why so admired a British stage and television actress should be largely unknown outside her country. ''I never have liked making films. I like doing a play because you go on and on and it gets better. I don't like doing one take, or four takes, because I'm not sure of myself.''

Well, if that is her conclusion after 40 years on stage and a handful of small movie parts, ''Mrs. Brown,'' John Madden's new film about the strangely passionate relationship between Queen Victoria and her Scottish servant John Brown, is evidently the exception. In the movie, which opens on Friday, Ms. Dench plays the widowed British monarch, and she enjoyed every minute of it, she said, even the dreadful weather that accompanied the 30 days of filming in England and Scotland last fall. The reason, it turns out, is quite simple. ''He made me laugh,'' she said of Billy Connolly, the popular Scottish comedian who plays Brown, ''and we continued laughing until the very end of the shoot. It was wonderful. One day he and I were in a boat and the water was seeping in. We sat there in the loch for four hours until the water was up to our waists. But it was O.K. Billy kept us all laughing.''

''Mrs. Brown'' suggests that Brown had something of the same effect on Victoria, who in 1861 had slumped into depression and reclusion after the death of her husband, Prince Albert. Three years later, with the public restive over the disappearance of the monarch, the royal household summoned Brown, Albert's loyal hunting attendant, in the hope that the earthy Scot could persuade the Queen to go riding and resume contact with the world. Brown did that and more. Ignoring court protocol, he spoke to Victoria bluntly, even addressing her as ''woman.'' This at first provoked her indignation, but it slowly won her over, to the point that she considered him her best friend and he was running the court. Soon scandal sheets were describing them as lovers (they were roughly the same age, in their late 40's) and mocking Victoria as Mrs. Brown. Finally, at the behest of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (played by Antony Sher), Brown persuaded the Queen to return to public life. After that, his influence waned, but he remained at court until his death in 1883.

''It's all true,'' Ms. Dench said of the screenplay. ''For example, the valentine she sent him: 'My dear John, affectionately yours, VR.' And there's a lot more that isn't in the film. When he died, a lock of her hair was placed in his hand. She had flowers put on his pillow every single day from his death to her death in 1901. And when she died, she asked that his photograph be put in her palm. The horrified doctors said, 'For heaven's sake, put some flowers over that.' '' So, to rephrase the question that intrigued Victorian England, exactly how close were they? ''She believed that Albert's spirit had entered Brown,'' Ms. Dench explained in an interview here at the Royal National Theater, where she was rehearsing David Hare's new play, ''Amy's View,'' in which she plays an aging actress struggling to keep her name in lights. ''When he came down south, he was this old friend of her husband's whom she knew very well and who suddenly treated her as a woman.'' ''You have to remember, he was a Highlander,'' she added. ''They're powerful, attractive people. So it was a passionate relationship. But I think you can have a really passionate relationship that does not have to be sexual. And I don't believe this was.''

ON THIS POINT, THE MOVIE IS ambiguous. There is ample flirtation between Queen and commoner, and it's evident that at least in the early years of their relationship Brown held sway over Victoria. But Ms. Dench could be right. Amid the bowing and scraping of the court, Victoria may have felt it sufficed to be fond of someone whose only interest was to protect and entertain her. To the world, she remained haughty, intimidating and ''not amused''; with Brown, she let down her guard.

In several ways, the choice of Ms. Dench, 62, to play the monarch was a natural one. First, she looks the part. Like Victoria, the actress measures just 5 feet 1 inch, while her husky voice and vowel-perfect Queen's English add to her regal aura. She also had her own experience to tap. She has played many of Shakespeare's Queens onstage, and having been named a Dame (a sort of knighthood for women) by Queen Elizabeth II, she has even been entertained at Buckingham Palace, getting a peep inside today's royal court. At the same time, such is Ms. Dench's stature here that her name alone will draw British moviegoers to ''Mrs. Brown.''

''When you talk about Judi, you unpack a suitcase full of superlatives,'' said Richard Eyre, the departing head of the National Theater, who is directing Ms. Dench in ''Amy's View.'' ''She's sort of diffident. There's not a trace of self-advertisement about her. She's genuinely modest. But in my view she is our greatest actress. The performance she is giving in this play is by anybody's standards as great a performance as you will ever see.''

In reality, almost from the start of her stage career, playing Ophelia at the Old Vic in 1957, she has been considered a pillar of the English theater, appearing in dozens of classical and contemporary productions and collecting innumerable awards, including an Olivier (the British Tony) for best actress in Anthony Page's ''Absolute Hell'' in 1995 and one for best actress in a musical in Stephen Sondheim's ''Little Night Music'' the same year. She is best known in Britain, however, for her frequent lead roles in television sitcoms, most recently in ''A Fine Romance,'' where she played opposite her husband, Michael Williams, and in ''As Time Goes By,'' which is about to enter its seventh season.

Mr. Connolly, who has been in a half-dozen films, said he learned much from working with her. ''She is by far and away the best actor I have ever worked with in my life,'' he said. ''I didn't care if she was a stage actress or a film actress. I just knew I was being dragged along in the slipstream of this extraordinary performer. She has that ability to switch it on immediately. She can be telling you a little joke and they'll say, 'Action,' and she instantly becomes the other person. It's terrifying to watch.''

In person, with her good humor, easy laugh, pageboy haircut and casual clothes, Ms. Dench exudes simplicity, which probably explains why no one seems to have a bad word to say about her. ''Oh, no, I could introduce you to some people,'' she exclaimed, as if uncomfortable at the idea of being too ''nice.'' ''But I think it's the series I do on the telly. I play a very kind of scatty person, but it's well received. So I think people are used to seeing me sitting in the corner of their rooms. When people see me on the train, they'll say, 'Hello Jude, how are you?' I don't think I'm a very frightening person. I don't think I'm a very grand person.'' As it happens, Mr. Connolly said he was ''a bit scared'' of meeting her, but he soon came to understand her popularity. ''She's held in deep affection,'' he said. ''The characters she has played, even in comedy, people sympathize with them. They also sympathize with Judi's shape, her height, her face. There's an ordinariness about her appearance and an extraordinariness about her performance that I think people identify with.''

Certainly, stardom has never appealed to Ms. Dench, although she has in fact appeared in a dozen films, including ''A Room With a View'' and ''A Handful of Dust'' as well as Kenneth Branagh's ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet.'' Of late she has also had fun playing M in two James Bond films, ''Goldeneye'' and the forthcoming ''Tomorrow Never Dies.'' But ''Mrs. Brown'' seems to be different. Victoria is her biggest movie role to date. And in this case, she has even agreed to promote the film in the United States, to cross the Atlantic for the first time in 38 years. ''I had the most wonderful time,'' Ms. Dench said of her last American trip, ''but it was like one of those things -- 'it was so wonderful that I don't want to go back; it won't be the same.' So all the theater things I have been asked to do over there, I have said no to.'' ''But 'Mrs. Brown' is a good piece of work,'' she added. ''It tells the story. It doesn't glamorize it. It doesn't play it down. It tells a proper story. And it was all real."

A Grief-Stricken Queen And a Manly Commoner

By JANET MASLIN (New York Times Article)
July 18, 1997

The braids and bonnets that intricately adorn the head of Queen Victoria, played with splendid regal grace by Judi Dench in the stately ''Mrs. Brown,'' are heavier than any crown. With them comes the burden of propriety that restricts every aspect of her royal life. Watched and fussed and fawned over during every waking hour, this film's central character is also in the midst of private mourning when the story begins in 1864.

''The depths of the Queen's sorrow remain impenetrable,'' a narrator says of the widowed Victoria, three years after the death of her beloved Albert. One look at Ms. Dench's stony, masklike countenance shows how deeply this is true.

''Mrs. Brown,'' which is itself as willfully discreet as the Queen's demeanor, goes on to describe a resonant and fascinating chapter in the middle of Victoria's 64-year reign. While still grieving for her spouse, the Queen developed a close attachment to one of her servants, a hearty Scottish horseman who helped rekindle her will to live. Precisely how he did this was a matter of some conjecture at the time, and invidious gossip surrounded Victoria's relationship with John Brown. The film takes its title from a supposedly disparaging nickname for the Queen.

''Mrs. Brown'' does not presume such a complete bond between Victoria and her servant, but it warmly appreciates the vicarious romance they may have had. The role of John Brown is so robustly played by Billy Connolly, a bright-eyed, delightful Scotsman better known for stand-up comedy, that his appeal to the Queen is eminently clear. And the film, directed by John Madden and written by Jeremy Brock with penetrating acuity, also sees the exquisite tension between Victoria's wishes and her obligations. That the Queen could not possibly have acted on her desires makes the film's subtlety that much more compelling.

Masterpiece Theater decorousness sets the tone for ''Mrs. Brown,'' which is, indeed, a Masterpiece Theater co-production with BBC Scotland and Irish Screen. But the leading actors elevate this beyond the realm of grand houses and tea settings. In a story that could once have been cast with Sean Connery and Glenda Jackson, Mr. Connolly and the formidable, expert Ms. Dench are perfect opposites, credibly drawn together yet worlds apart. Each of them has the fierce, charismatic confidence to suggest a will to defy conventional wisdom.

Ms. Dench, renowned for her stage career and rarely interested in film roles (though she played M opposite James Bond), makes an authentically commanding personage of the Queen. Seen dining in grim silence with her children and advisers, Victoria clearly counts on deference in every regard. She is thus surprised by the impertinence of Brown, who has been summoned to Windsor from the more rugged Scottish environment of Balmoral, in part because he was a favorite of Albert's. It is also felt that Brown will ''appeal to the Queen's sentimental though deeply held view that all Highlanders are good for the health.''

The Queen does not even deign to look at Brown the first time he is in her presence. Brown decides to fix that. He appears in the formal garden standing at attention and holding the reins to a white steed (which makes for just the sort of powerfully symbolic image to enliven the film's rigorous politeness). It isn't long before the Queen has begun smiling a bit and extolling the benefits of fresh air. (Ms. Dench melts Victoria's reserve with sly, wonderful delicacy.) At Brown's behest she even goes swimming, covered head to toe in a black bathing costume that is another striking manifestation of Victorian life.

Soon Brown, who dares to address the Queen as ''Woman,'' has assumed considerable power over the royal routine. He controls access to the monarch, spirits her off to the resuscitating wilds of Scotland and speaks dismissively to Bertie, the Prince of Wales. (''I think ye should go now. Ye've tired yer mother enough!'') And Brown, moved and flattered by the Queen's attentions, is touchingly naive enough to think that his role is as simple as that. Another of the film's striking images has him skinny-dipping exultantly in the Highlands, celebrating sheer virility and crowing over his new-found clout.

''Mrs. Brown'' transcends its period setting not only with a keenly observed struggle between love and duty but also with the kind of controversy that envelops the Queen and her servant. Victoria's virtual disappearance from public life prompts much satirical interest and political gossip. ''At tea, he partook of haggis,'' a newspaper dutifully reports about Brown. And the Queen insists on making her Highland diaries public, prompting the film's Machiavellian Disraeli (played with coy precision by Antony Sher) to remark cattily, ''Why, you sell even more copies than Mr. Dickens!'' He is initially threatened by Brown's presence, then eager to exploit a man of so much fire and so little guile.

''Mrs. Brown'' feels slightly perfunctory as it finally assesses this unorthodox liaison, perhaps because the last events here mark a return to the public arena. As her royal role reclaims the Queen, it overwhelms the private concerns at the heart of the film. ''Mrs. Brown'' makes this a steep price, but not a hard one to understand.